The Case Against Hybridizing AngorasOftentimes in Angoras, we get caught up in our rush to get the ‘best’ fiber, for spinning, for showing, to roll in. We want the sheen of the satin, the density of the German, the softness of the English, and let’s throw in the halo of the French! It brings out the mad scientist in all of us to mix and match and come up with a custom angora.There however lies a huge issue with deciding to do this. The fact is, each breed has a distinct coat. This wasn't always the case. It used to be there were only 'Angoras' They were a generic long haired rabbit. 'French' and 'English' were separated into two breeds in America by the ARBA in 1944. While in Europe they were developing the German angoras during the 1930's. Then we kept going, with more and more options. Each is distinct and serves a very important purpose.French, should have a prominent guard hair, with a profuse undercoat. There should be a drape to the coat giving the traditional ‘oval’ appearance. Guard hair looks, and feels different. No, it should not feel hairy, or overly coarse, but it is different than undercoat. This gives yarn spun from French a very traditional halo look. Some love this, some think it looks like a skinned muppet. Satins should of course have sheen. The standard calls for a ‘fine’ guard hair without mentioning drape, or calling for prominence. Sheen should be everywhere, not just on the face and feet. It should be visible down to the root of the hair. You can also feel sheen. I call it a teflon coating, others refer to it as an oily feel. Get your hands on short coated satins, and you’ll feel the sheen. It's a very distinct feel, and correctly sheened yarn not only looks shiny, but it causes more drape in the finished item.English also have a fine guard hair, and grow a profuse DENSE coat. Their furnishings, set them apart in looks, but nothing spins like English either. English coat spins up to a beautiful lace with spectacular crimp. It’s an entirely different experience than spinning French or Satin. The finished yarn has the least halo, but also has the most 'springiness' English likes to spin fine, and make incredible laceweight yarn. It looks like a shetland lace, but of course is feather light and baby skin soft.Giant angoras, have Awn hairs in addition to their guard hairs, and undercoat. Starting as a crimped undercoat, it then transitions to a guard hair straightness. It’s a completely unique coat, with a very different feel to other breeds. Giants are NOT Germans, they are an entirely separate breed, developed by Louise Walsh. Giant spins up as a more resilient version of English. It's crimpy yet it halos. It has it's own very unique texture. Giant, in my opinion would make a great scarf or hat, the resilience making it a little harder wearing. Germans were developed for production coats, and commercial milling. They grow a lot of fiber quickly, but often have a coarser coat as that is better for milling. An extremely fine fiber tends to nep during the milling process unless handled very carefully. A coarser coat also weighs more, and since that is one of the primary qualifications in registrations for IAGARB Shearings, it can be rewarded inadvertently. For a hand spinner, it will halo, but is a very different experience from the other breeds. None of these are better or worse than others. Everyone has their favorites, while others may hate a specific breed. The issue lies here. Say you have a french with a slightly hairy coat. You want to make it softer so you breed it to an English. You go ooh! That’s lovely and keep crossing. Soon you have lost the traits that make a French coat, a FRENCH coat. Instead of draping it stands off. And spinning wise, you lose your halo. Or, let’s say you want more density in your satin. So you cross in German, or French. Both create an illusion of more density (non sheened coats are thicker than sheened - the hair shafts are thicker). But you lose sheen, which while a recessive, takes truly generations to gain back. In addition, you introduce a more prominent guard hair which is very un satin like. Your yarn ends up without the drape, and with much more halo than any satin would have. Even worse, is if you take the non-sheened baby, and cross back to your french. Congratulations, you’ve just introduced the sheen gene into your French line. Guess what - it’ll haunt you forever, because a low sheened (low modifiers) french will never be found except by very astute judges.All of these crosses can make a great ‘generic’ angora. The issue is, that 100 years ago, we started with ‘generic’ angoras. Why take a step back in time? Through breeding, culling, and selection, we have created 5 distinct breeds of angoras who should be kept there. Cross breeding, to introduce a color, or to save a breed, can be a good thing. But the quick fix cross breeding, doesn’t make any sense. Instead, set your goals WITHIN YOUR BREED’s standard, and breed to it. Ruthlessly eliminate stock from the gene pool that does not fit that standard, and keep the picture firmly in your mind of what you want. Breed the best to the best, keep 10% of those, and then repeat. A quick fix will often come back to haunt you in the end, where a hard selection of breeding stock will only pay off. As breeders we set the future standards for others. Recognizing the distinct reasons for each breed of angora leads us to success for ourselves, and for those to come.

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